Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello has inaugurated a 32-man staff screening complaint and appeal committee to look into the cases of workers whose names appeared on uncleared list and those whose names were omitted from the list.
Inaugurating the committee on Monday in government house, Lokoja, Governor Bello charged the committee to do a thorough job and submit a comprehensive report to him within six weeks.
The governor who said his government was not insensitive to the plight of the civil servants in the state, regretted the inconvenience the exercise might have caused workers, noting that it has become expedient to reform the civil service which he described as the engine room of government.
“The civil service is known to be an engine room of any government, and where the engine is not effective as a result of existing anomalies, government will not be able to function properly and that is what we want to address in the interest of the state and its people. The state had stagnated for too long and we have to change it for better.
“We are desirous of ensuring that no body is being short change in the process of the civil service reformation, that is why we have constituted this committee to attend to genuine complaints with a view to address them”, he said.
While calling on the civil servants who have genuine complaints to forward them to the committee , the governor cautioned workers against taking law into their hands , saying no body is “above the law”
In her remark, the Secretary to the State Government, Mrs Folashade Arike said the appeal committee will be the end of the staff screening exercise, assuring that ghost workers and unintended beneficiaries can never resurrect again in the state.
She called on those whose names appeared on the uncleared list of the screening exercise, but have genuine complaints to forward it to the committee, stressing that the exercise was not meant to hurt any worker.
Also in his remark, the Chairman of the committee and Director of studies, Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON) Mr John Yila Ayuba assured that the committee will leave no stone unturned in their effort to ensure a credible job.
